What a difference five years makes

These past few weeks we have been thrown a few challenges that have really shown me how much both myself and my husband have changed in the last five years. In five years we have not only grown as individual people but as a couple. We have grown as parents. We have grown as children of God.

Five years ago we were living in Pittsburgh. We had just turned 30. I had just quit my job as a Regulatory Affairs Engineer as Zoll Lifecor. Brian had just left his job at UPMC. Abby was six months old.

A 6 months old on our back porch

At the children's museum 6 months old

When life would throw us unexpected changes we'd ask questions like "What are we going to do?", "How are we going to get through this?", "What can we do to fix this?", and "What's our plan?". We'd make our plans without God's input. We'd do everything in our power. We'd try to control every situation around us and wonder why we were failing.

Easter 2010

 

We thought we were healthy. We were exercising a few days a week. We were communicating with each other but not well.

2010

 

As new parents we thought we were messing up our kid. We had no clue what we were doing and everything was an experiment. We kept thinking "Are we doing this right?". "What if we do something wrong?". I was struggling with thoughts of "OMG she is doing X. Is that normal? Is she going to die? Is she sick?" I was a mess!

 

Now here we are five years later. We are now 35 and have 4 kids. We live in Erie. God has thrown us some unexpected curve balls lately. We are now asking questions like "God you brought us to this what is you plan?", "Please let your will be done and make your path clear"  and "I'm not worried about this as I know you have our best interests."

D 2015

D 2015

Being that D is our fourth we are still struggling with parenting questions but not as much as with our first.  We have he basics down but since each of them has been different always new challenges present themselves.

Now we exercise 6-7 days a week together and sometimes as a family. We are eating so healthy and feeling great for it. We are instilling healthy habits to our kids. We are also showing them that hard work and determination get you to your goals and where you want to be.

July 2014

We are communicating as a couple. We do couple's devotionals. We pray for our family together. We do family devotionals. We are teaching our kids that God's number one in our life.
I don't know what God has in store for our lives in the next six months but I do know that I'm clinging to Jeremiah 29:11

 

God's plans are so much better than my plans. I cannot wait to see what they are and how everything unfolds. I also now that:

I'm praying for each one of my readers today. May you feel God's presence in your life. Also may you feel peace with whatever you been struggling with lately. Remember God's got this. Have a blessed day everyone.